1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transferring device and a transferring method, in particular, to a transferring device and a transferring method suitable for transferring plate-like member such as a semiconductor wafer and the like as an object.
2. Related Art
Generally, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, simply referred to as “wafer”) undergo various processes over time such as sticking a protective sheet on the circuit surface side thereof before grinding of the rear surface. Duration of intervals between such processes, transferring operations are involved among placing means of wafer such as tables or the like via an appropriate transferring device or conveyance device.
Patent Document 1 discloses a transferring device having a robot arm that sucks and holds the wafer.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-242249
However, in the transferring device disclosed in the Patent Document 1, the device is arranged so as to suck and hold wafer. Therefore in the case where the transferring device is used for transferring an ultra-thin wafer that has been achieved recently down to several tens of micron meter in thickness and that the size of plane figure thereof has been upsized in recent years, wafer tends to be cracked due to partial load incurred to the wafer accompanied with sucking, and the peripheral side of the wafer is inclined to be sagged, which causes breakage of the peripheral area thereof because the peripheral area touches the table face firstly when transferring the wafer onto the table.